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The height of the wave was confirmed by The Portuguese Surfing Federation´s Technical Director, Miguel Moreira, “This is the female record. There is no doubt about it.”

Gabeira grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she started surfing at age 14. At age 17, she moved to Hawaii to pursue her passion for surfing. Supporting herself with two different waitressing jobs, she still managed to find enough time to train, and on February 6th, 2006, rode her first big wave. A 35-foot tall wave at Waimea Bay, on the North Shore of Oahu, marked the beginning of many big waves that Gabeira would surf.

Maya Gabeira, The Discovery of Nazare

A wipeout broke her ankle, herniated discs, ripped off her lifevest, and left her face-down, unconscious in the water.

Gabeira has surfed waves all around the globe, including Indonesia, Australia, South Africa, Northern California, and Tahiti. Her mentor, Carlos Burle, also of Brazil, introduced her to tow-in surfing, which has given her the means necessary to surf some of the world’s largest waves. Gabeira is a 5-time World Surf League Big Wave Awards winner, as well as the winner of the 2009 ESPY Best Female Action Sports Athlete Award.

In 2013, Gabeira had a near-death experience while surfing big waves in Nazaré, the same place she set the world record. A wipeout broke her ankle, herniated discs, ripped off her lifevest, and left her face-down, unconscious in the water. She was rescued and resuscitated on the beach.

Despite this brush with death, five years after her crash, the Brazilian surfer completed her comeback. On January 18th, 2018, Gabeira realized her goal of surfing the world record largest wave when she successfully towed onto and rode a 68-foot tall beast.

Gabeira knew this wave was a women’s world record, but she wasn’t receiving recognition for it. The World Surf League and Guinness World Records has previously only recognized and awarded the big wave world record to men. Gabeira was fighting for a women’s category as well. “It is essential to have a separate record,” Gabiera told The New York Times.

“Women have to fight to get their space where it’s supposedly just a man’s world”

In order to gain recognition as a world record, the World Surf League must first approve. Gabeira attempted contacting the organization, but received no response. She traveled to their office in Los Angeles and spoke with them directly. For several months her request was ignored. She eventually took matters into her own hands by enlisting the help of her fans and followers on social media.
The following is a quote from a video she posted to Facebook, asking for help with a petition to the WSL for a separate female world record category.

“Hello, I’m Maya Gabeira. I’m a big wave surfer from Rio de Janeiro and I need your help. On January 18, 2018 I achieved my life’s goal of surfing the biggest wave a woman has ever surfed.In order to establish a world record, I need the World Surf League to certify the measurement of the wave. For some reason, the WSL has ignored my request. Please sign this petition to ask the WSLto recognize a world record for women in big wave surfing!”

“Women have to fight to get their space where it’s supposedly just a man’s world. So, if you scream loud enough then you get heard. And that’s what happened.” Maya Gabeira explained to Public Radio International.

The Great Barrier Reef outlook is ‘very poor’. We have one last chance to save it.

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That’s the conclusion of the latest five-yearly report from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, released on Friday. The report assessed literally hundreds of scientific studies published on the reef’s declining condition since the last report was published in 2014.

Looking to the future, the report said “the current rate of global warming will not allow the maintenance of a healthy reef for future generations […] the window of opportunity to improve the reef’s long-term future is now”.

But that window of opportunity is being squandered so long as Australia’s and the world’s greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise.

The evidence on the reef’s condition is unequivocal

A logical national response to the outlook report would be a pledge to curb activity that contributes to global warming and damages the reef. Such action would include a ban on the new extraction of fossil fuels, phasing out coal-fired electricity generation, transitioning to electrified transport, controlling land clearing and reducing local stressors on the reef such as land-based runoff from agriculture.

But federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley’s response to the outlook report suggested she saw no need to take dramatic action on emissions, when she declared: “it’s the best managed reef in the world”.

Major coral bleaching events in 2016 and 2017 have devastated the reef.

But rather than meaningfully tackle Australia’s contribution to climate change, the federal government has focused its efforts on fixing the damage wrought on the reef. For example as part of a A$444 million grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, the government has allocated $100 million for reef restoration and adaptation projects over the next five years or so.

The Great Barrier Reef attained world heritage status in the 1980s.AAP

It showed authorities have failed to reach water quality targets set under the Reef 2050 Plan – Australia’s long-term plan for improving the condition of the reef.

For example the plan sets a target that by 2025, 90% of sugarcane land in reef catchments should have adopted improved farming practices. However the report showed the adoption had occurred on just 9.8% of land, earning the sugarcane sector a grade of “E”.

So yes, the reef is definitely in danger

The 2019 outlook report and other submissions from Australia will be assessed next year when the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meets to determine if the Great Barrier Reef should be listed as “in danger” – an outcome the federal government will fight hard to avoid.

An in-danger listing would signal to the world that the reef was in peril, and put the federal government under greater pressure to urgently prevent further damage. Such a listing would be embarrassing for Australia, which presents itself as a world’s-best manager of its natural assets.

Environment activists engaged in a protest action to bring attention to the dangers facing the Great Barrier Reef.AAP

The outlook report maintains that the attributes of the Great Barrier Reef
that led to its inscription as a world heritage area in 1981 are still intact, despite the loss of close to half of the corals in 2016 and 2017.

But by any rational assessment, the Great Barrier Reef is in danger. Most of the pressures on the reef are ongoing, and some are escalating – notably anthropogenic heating, also known as human-induced climate change.

And current efforts to protect the reef are demonstrably failing. For example despite an ongoing “control” program, outbreaks of the damaging crown-of-thorns starfish – triggered by poor water quality – have spread throughout the reef.

The federal government has recently argued that climate change should not form the basis for an in-danger listing, because rising emissions are not the responsibility of individual countries. The argument comes despite Australia having one of the highest per capita emissions rates in the world.

But as Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise – an outcome supported by government policy – the continued downward trajectory of the Great Barrier Reef is inevitable.

Cover photo: A supplied image obtained Thursday, June 6, 2013 of holiday makers in the Great Barrier Reef, Tropical North Queensland, October 2008. ReefLive, a live 12-hour interactive online show about the reef, will be broadcast on YouTube from 10am (AEST) on Friday to coincide with World Ocean Day on Saturday. (AAP Image/Supplied by Tourism and Events Queensland, Richard Fitzpatrick) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY